Dogs are widely recognized as exceptionally loyal and protective animals, particularly when it comes to young children.

This is one of several cases where kids have disappeared from their homes, but their loyal dogs stayed with them and aided in their rescue.

Thanks to his faithful German shepherd, a 5-year-old child who had disappeared was found safe and sound.

One day, the Houston police received a report about a small child walking alongside railway tracks with only their dog for company, which sparked the events to follow.

The 5-year-old was about a half-mile from his home when the department’s Sgt. Ricardo Salas discovered he had Down syndrome.

Sgt. Ricardo Salas also realized that Alejandro, the German shepherd, had been accompanying the child to ensure his safety.

“Witnesses told me the dog was with the little boy when they found him. As I walked away with the boy, the dog followed,” Sgt. Salas wrote on Twitter. “This dog was his protector and his angel.”

“It seems to us that the dog knew something was up. He knew that the child wasn’t supposed to be wandering off, and he ended up following him,” he told the Houston Chronicle. “He was very protective and would not take his eyes off the child.”

Even when the officers arrived to assist, Alejandro remained watchful and never let the child out of his sight.

“The dog was following basically everywhere I went. It wasn’t barking, it wasn’t intimidated,” Salas added, saying that when he put the boy in the car the dog “jumped inside the driver’s seat with him.”

Shortly after receiving the first call, the police received a second call indicating that the missing child’s name was Jose.

Jasmine Martinez, the mother of the 5-year-old Jose, reported that after taking a nap with her son, she woke up to find that he had vanished.

Thankfully, the incident had a positive outcome, and the young child only suffered minor scrapes.

The family is grateful, but not surprised, that their loyal dog rose to the occasion to protect Jose when he was in peril.

“Alejandro has always been a very overprotective dog since we got him, we got him when he was a baby. I was not surprised when they said he was walking with him the whole entire time,” Jose’s sister, Samantha Muñoz, told Click 2 Houston.

To prevent any similar incidents from occurring again, Jasmine Martinez is currently in the process of installing child protective locks in her home.

TSgt. Salas was impressed by the “level of loyalty this dog had to this little boy” and emphasized the importance of the dog’s protective presence, particularly since the railway tracks are usually bustling with activity.

“Thank you God for looking over this child,” he wrote.